Is there an art history term for works from triumphalist periods in history, where a culture is still highly confident from recent successes, has stopped taking real risks, believes in a highly positive telling if it’s history, and is on brink of mediocrity/decline?
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My huge 9 hours in undergrad art history 30+ years ago says no. They tend to classify periods by artistic theme (Rococo, Neoclassical, Romantic etc etc). Maybe you want Archaeology or Sociology to weigh in?
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High Baroque, as in:
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Yes, it’s called “[insert American university name] MFA Showcase”
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Fin de siècle was often used positively earlier on (associated with modern progress) but then the negative meaning took over (this period also overlaps with the Belle Epoque but that label came in hindsight after WWI) encyclopedia.com/history/encycl ;
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Closest single word from the art-crit lexicon would be Mannerism. In rock music: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; in jazz, Kenny G.; in photography, Kodak; in sports, the NFL; in politics, the GOP.
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Almost by definition, any time when the current favored art form is referred to as "classicism" (NOT when looking back at an older form and calling THAT classicism.). "By definition" ==> no guarantee there are actual examples. But maybe late 19c "Academy" art.









